03 MARCH 2015

Garcia Defeats Salido, FULL REPORT

Garcia defeated Salido in New York

Jerry Glick reporting from ringside: Defending WBO featherweight champion Orlando Salido, from Senora, Mexico, had trouble staying on his feet whenever he was hit by challenger, Mikey Garcia. Garcia, from Oxnard, CA, dominated, dropping him about half way into the first of twelve rounds scheduled with a quick left hook. A second one resulted in another knockdown near the end of the round. They traded punches in a closer second frame, but Garcia delivered the more effective blows.

Throughout the rounds Salido, 126 pounds, attempted to walked Garcia, 125 ½ pounds, down, often lunging in with his shots, but it was Garcia who did the better work even as he was backing away.

A right uppercut to the chin put Salido down again in the third stanza, and a straight left turned the trick again for the challenger in the fourth. A right hurt Salido in the fifth. Suddenly, late in the eighth round they accidentally banged heads which resulted in a broken Garcia nose. The fight was halted after the round, on the advice of the doctors, so the fight which was put into the hands of the judges.

Ex-champ Salido, who suffered damage to both eyes, especially the right eye one which had a big red/purple mouse under it, saw his record fall to 39-12-2 (27 KOs), while the new champion remained unbeaten at 31-0 (26 KOs), when he won the unanimous technical decision by scores of 79-69 twice and 79-70 from Judges Julie Lederman, John Stewart, and Don Ackerman, respectively.

After his big win, Garcia admitted that winning by a shortened fight was a little disappointing, but, “I showed everybody what I had,” said Garcia. “How good I can really be. We had a game plan and we executed the game plan. I knew exactly what to do.”

The show was promoted by Top Rank and K2 Promotions (as in two Klitschkos), packed the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City. I was broadcast on HBO Boxing After Dark.

WBA middleweight Champion, Gennady ”GGG” Golovkin, 25-0 (22 KOs), from Karaganda, KAZ, impressed with his steady, tight defense and aggressive style, against challenger Gabriel “King” Rosado. Rosado, normally a brawler, stayed outside using his legs to keep his chin safe. No knockdowns, but a lot of blood, all of it from the face of Rosado, 159, who sustained a cut over his left eye in the second frame. By the end of the fight he had a bloody nose and a face covered in crimson. In what turned out to be the final round, the seventh, 160 pounds, snapped Rosado’s head back with a right and then again with a hard jab. Finally Rosado’s trainer, Billy Brisco, jumped up onto the ring and threw in the towel when referee Steve Smoger did not hear them shouting for him to stop the fight at 2:46 of the round.

This was the fight that had the biggest chance of a huge upset because if Philly fighter Rosado, 21-6 (13 KOs), had won it would have been a big surprise. He didn’t, but he was trying all the way. Circling and always on the move, the challenger kept his hands moving with jabs to both the head and body, and an occasional right as well; but it was the defending champ who was dominant walking Rosado down, not giving him a chance to mount an attack.

As testimony to the brave challenger’s efforts, Golovkin had a swelling under his left eye, but it was never a factor in the fight.

The judges got it wrong, Mexico’s Juan Carlos “Mini” Burgos, 129 pound, was robbed of the WBO Super-Featherweight belt held by champion Roman “Rocky” Martinez, 129 ½ pounds, from Puerto Rico, when the two of the three judges did not see how overwhelmingly Burgos was beating Martinez. It’s true that Martinez, 26-1-2 (16 KOs), had Burgos, 30-1-1 (20 KOs), backing up and that he was throwing more punches-missing much of them- but it was the man from Tijuana who threw the more effective punches.

Burgos mounted a brutal body attack that took the steam out of Martinez’ shots, as the fight wore on he was throwing slaps rather than true punches. Burgos appeared to take the eleventh round off as his punch output dropped drastically, only to go right back to where it was in the twelfth and final round.

Only one judge got it right, Waleska Roldan, had it 117-111 for Burgos. Another had it all even at 114-114. The third judge inexplicably gave it to Martinez, 116-112. Harold Lederman, HBO’s house judge, tallied 117-111, while this reporter scored it 118-110 for Burgos. Eddie Claudio refereed.